God Save The Queen

Well, today has to be one of the most exciting things I've ever experienced!  Queen Elizabeth, William, and Kate came to Nottingham and I was NOT going to miss that!  I went down to Market Square about 7:45 this morning to wait for her arrival at 10:10.  There was already quite a crowd there (some people got there at 2:30 this morning).  There were barricades around the barricades.  I asked a police officer what the plan was and found a spot to wait.  Of course, after waiting for an hour, it changed and they let people in from a different spot.  I did wind up with only one row in front of me at the barricade, so I was in pretty good shape.  People were streaming in the whole time we waited.  There were reportedly 20,000 people in that little square. There were people at the windows of their offices and I saw a few on top of buildings.  I have never really thought one way or the other about the royal family.  Of course, I was all into Will and Kate getting married (even though I didn't get to watch it because our power was still out after the tornado had come through Alabama), but who doesn't think that they are just a lovely couple?  I have really begun to appreciate being over here at such a historic time for England.  I watched some of the Jubliee celebrations in London and really couldn't wait for the Queen to make her way to Nottingham.  Then I found out William and Kate were coming too.  WOW!  So, as I stood for hours in that pressed together crowd, I started to get so excited at the thought of actually seeing these people in person.  It was sentiment felt among all the people around me.  One of the police officers came over and let people in the crowd try on his "bobby" hat.  It was a welcome few minutes of entertainment during the long wait.  The Lord Mayor also came around and talked to the people in the crowd.  He was not decked out in his full regala, but did have on the chain with his suit.  There was a mom with her 4 children to my left and they brought flowers.  When the clock struck 10:00, you could see the excitement building.  People were waving their flags and craning their necks looking for the approaching car.  The Lord Mayor (now fully decked out) and his wife made their way to the spot where the car would come.  I was very close to that area, but couldn't see the car.  But there was NO DOUBT when they emerged from the car because the crowd roared.  Then.....there she was.  Queen Elizabeth II was only a few feet from me.  She looked absolutely stunning in her teal suit and hat.  She has on her signature white gloves and was all smiles.  She looked like she was as happy to be there as we were to have her there.  The kids beside me held out their flowers and she walked over and got them herself.  What a moment that those children and their mom will never forget!!  The lady behind me and I were so engrossed in watching the queen that we didn't even see Will and Kate till they were almost in front of us!  They were on the other side of the walk way and they spoke to the crowd on that side.  During the time they were all in front of us, the crowd surged forward with everyone trying to lean in and get pictures.  I am not normally clostraphobic, but that was a difficult several minutes.  It wasn't too bad when they were right there because I was taking pictures and not really paying attention to how tightly packed we were.  But once the queen had moved on and William and Kate were a little down the line on the other side, I expected to get a little breathing room back.  It took a little longer for that to happen than I liked, but once they all went inside the Council House everyone kind of spread back out.  In a couple of minutes, the Royal family came out on the balcony and waved to the crowd.  They stayed there for a several minutes and the band played the National Anthem as the crowd sang along.  Then they went back in the Council House for "official" meeting with the Nottingham officials.  After about 15-20 minutes, they came out, got in their cars, and went on to their next stop.  During the time they were inside, I looked up at the gray skies of England and thanked God for allowing me to be there, to witness history.  I have found that no matter where we go, what amazing place we are visiting, person we are seeing, tour we are taking, there is a moment of quiet for me to take a breath and say thank you.  I can't believe this girl from Albertville, Alabama stood in the presence of the Queen of England and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.  I will never forget this day!

Cheers Y'all!

Czeching out Prague

    We never, ever would have thought to go to Prague until my travel agent mentioned it.  Since then, we have been determined to get there, and it was well worth it!  I went to exchange our money and used £300.  I got back 4,800 in czech crowns!  The bills were 500, 200, and 100.  Lower than that, they use coins.  I thought the money looked like play money (but I have to admit that I still think that about British notes) :)
   
You never know what kind of weather you are going to get in the spring, but we could not have ordered up ourselves any more perfect weather!  It was in the upper 60's-low 70's.  We didn't even need to wear jackets during the day.  When we got there on Friday, we had a few hours, so I just went out walking.  Mark kept wanting to stop and look at the map, but for some reason, I didn't feel the need and just wanted to walk.  Of all places....in one that's not an English speaking country and had road signs that look like this!
    
    We went on a beer walk Friday night since the Czechs are known  for their beer.  We had a group of 14 and they are normally like 6 people.  There was a group there from Sweden and a couple from Kentucky.  The lady lived in Lexington and she and Mark talked about the city and what's the same and what has changed.  They were so nice and it was neat to meet them.  We went to 3 different pubs and tried a different beer at each one.  At the 3rd pub, we had a meal.  I had a beef fillet that had a cranberry sauce on top so it was kind of sweet and Mark had the goulash!  They were both amazing!  I didn't know if the food would be good but I was not disappointed at all!  We walked back with Edie and Phil and as we crossed Charles Bridge, there was a guy playing the violin.  Edie said she would take our picture dancing.  It is one of my favorite ones from the trip! 

    On Saturday, we did a grand city tour that took us around the city, then into Prague Castle for 90 minutes, then a cruise down the Vltana River and finished with a walk into Olde Town Square.  Our guide did the tour in English and French.  Prague Castle is the largest castle complex in the world, so 90 minutes was nowhere near enough time.  St Vitus's Cathedral was amazing!  I would love to go back and take a full tour which takes you to the burial vault of St Wenceslas.  The stained glass windows were beautiful, but the church was so crowded, shoulder to shoulder, that it was hard to get good pictures that do it justice.  The river cruise was nice and relaxing.  We walked into Olde Town Square and the Easter Market was set up.  We looked around there for a while.  I knew I was going to get some hand-painted Easter eggs and Mark fell in love with the paintings of the city.  So we looked for those (along with our usual shot glass) until time to go see the Astronomical Clock.   This is a must see in Prague!  Each hour puppets perform and trumpeteers play.  It's cute :)  Charles Bridge is the most iconic sight of the city.  There are statues along both sides all the way down the bridge.  It is just spectacular and when you think about how long they've been there, it's mind boggling.  Of course it is always filled to the brim with people and it's kind of hard to walk through.  There are street perfomers, artists (with their pictures for sell and some caricature artists drawing people there on the bridge), and beggars the whole length of the bridge.  My favorite was the marionette playing the guitar.  (The video is on my facebook page).  Marionettes are big in Prague and they have all sorts in the sourvenir shops.  There are marionette shows, but we didn't have time to take in one of those :) 
It was daylight savings time while we were there and we sprung forward on Saturday night.  Mark decided he was going to set his phone up an hour manually because he was afraid it wouldn't do it automatically and we had tour the next morning.  Well, it did pick it up so WE sprung forward 2 hours!!  It turned out to be a good thing though because since we had some extra time, we walked to the bridge and there was almost no one there. 

My favorite statue on Charles Bridge

Wenceslas Square has shopping and eating (and had some of the Easter market set up).  There was a KFC there :)  We get a kick out  of seeing all the American fast food places everywhere.  St Wenceslas is the same man that the Christmas Carol, Good King Wenceslas. is about.  He was killed by his brother over political reasons and that brought him sainthood in Bohemia.  There is a large statue of him in the square in front of the National Museum.  There were some demonstrators there, but their signs were in Czech.  There was also a parade of demonstrators on Saturday walking through the Square.  There were priests in it and all the people were carrying crosses.

On Sunday we went to Karlstejn Castle.  It was about an hour outside the city.  It was nice to see some of the country side.  This guide did the tour in English, Russian, and German!  The bus pulled up beside an out of the way restaurant and we had to hike the rest of the way.  We didn't know that!! :)  It wasn't far and not too bad uphill.  It was neat to see the castle peek through the trees as we approached.  King Charles IV lived here.  You could tell that it is still a very protected castle.  We weren't allowed to take pictures
inside the castle (boo) and the guide unlocked each door as we went in and locked it behind her.  I did mange to get a rogue picture in the first room until Mark asked if we were allowed to take pictures and she said no.  I told Mark he shouldn't have asked, but he felt like we wouldn't fare well in a Czech jail lol.  The Czech crown jewels are not on display to the public, but the replicas are in this castle.  So now we have seen the English, Scottish, and Czech
crown jewels.  Hopefully we will get to see more while we are here.  We got this post card to show the castle (it's too big and on too steep of a hill to get a full picture).  The wooden room in the bottom left corner is in the throne room and part of the wood dates back to the 14th century.  You can tell what part is original because it's a lighter color wood.  The 2nd one has a picture of the Czech crown in the crown jewel room.  Our guide only took us to the castle then put us in tour groups that had leaders speaking our language.  We were supposed to meet him back at the restaurant when we finished.  Mark and I got back while he was eating and we sat and talked to him for a little while.  He is very athletic and talked about hiking, running, and skiing.  He had a friend that went to Canada and America to hike mountains.  There was an avalanche and he died.  How sad!  He said that a lot of Germans come to ski on the Chech mountains and there are casualties sometimes because the weather can change so quickly and you lose sight of your path.  That's what happened to his friend.  Then we discussed the difference in North American and European ice hockey.  He was a very interesting guy.  It was neat to just sit and talk to a local and hear how he lives his life.  We told him that most Americans don't know a 2nd language and he speaks four!  He made a good point though.  Americans don't need another language because we all speak English and most other countries have a lot of English speakers.  In Europe, international travel is so easy and close that it's more necessary to speak more than one language.

At the Easter Market, we shopped like crazy and we ate well.  We  had their version of a "cinnamon roll" both days.  It's just dough wrapped around a tube, rolled in cinnamon and sugar, and cooked over a flame.  They were delicious!  We had a lot of fun looking at each of the stalls, most of which had Easter eggs.  I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to decide which ones I wanted because there were so many to choose from!  Here is a typical stall of eggs and there were dozens of them.  I got some from this lady and some from the little old lady that personalized some.  There were some red Prague ones that I saw the day before and couldn't find again.  We also spent an equal amount of time going to the different stalls looking at all the different paintings for Mark.  We have never really looked at those before in other places we have visited, but he really liked these from Prague and we got several.  The original plan was to have them framed when we got home, but now he wants to wait and see what he can find in Italy first lol.  I was pleased with the ones he chose though.  They are a great representation of the city and what we loved about it. 

Mark and I both absolutely fell in love with a city that we never even planned on seeing when we first moved here.  I would love the chance to go back and see it again.  As with anywhere, there are things we just didn't have time to get to which leaves the door open for a return visit. 

So, until next time....na zdravin (to your health...basically "cheers" in Czech) and Cheers Y'all!

Great Valentine's Weekend!

Valentine's weekend was a great reminder that we don't have to go on a trip somewhere to experience something new.  Friday night was Nottingham Light Night, something the city has been doing for 5 years.  This seems to be a very artistic town (even though they have 2 soccer teams, a horse race track, and a hockey team).  Light Night seems to be set up to display a lot of that without having to go into a museum to see it and to give a different venue for the artists to show their work in.  A lot of things we saw were done by college students.  There were so many things going on in so many different places that there was no way to see it all.  A lot of the businesses had events going on inside as well.  The libraries had readings (one had Dickens readings by the Dickens Fellowship).  There are two playhouses here and both had several events, which included performances by their childrens goups.  A lot of restaurants and pubs had bands and Cape, which is on our corner, had Salsa dancers for a couple of hours.  It was also a great opportunity for the churches in the city.  They all had something going on.  And they all offered tea and coffee because it was COLD!!  We never made it to any of the indoor events.  We were outside the whole time.  (Hence the almost frost bitten toes I came home with).  St Mary's Church had 2 different displays outside, along with a projection onto the church of light drawings.  There were light projections onto the City Council building in Market Square and on other buildings as well.  One building had red and blue lights with different shapes.  One of the shapes in the rotation was stars and made me think of the American flag :)  There were street performers walking around the city playing music.  The castle had the most in a concentrated area and we spent a lot of time there.  They had all the landscape lit up in different colors.  There was a high school orchestra set up outside playing for a little while.  My favorite, of course, was the heart.  Mark had "Mark loves Amy" projected on it for me for Valentine's Day!!  (pretty good way to get out of buying a card, don't ya think?  I liked it much better!)  Overall it was a very neat night and one we will do every year that we are here.

Saturday we went out to Wollaton Park.  We have not been out there yet and it's only about a 10 minute bus ride.  It had snowed again last week and the castle and the park were both still covered.  There was a very nice lady getting on the bus with us and she directed us on where to go and where our stop was.  She also suggested other places for us to go visit.  The people here are so nice!  We pulled up at the 2nd stop and you could see Wollaton Hall up on the hill.  Wollaton Hall is used as Bruce Wayne's mansion in the Batman movie coming out this summer.  Mark and I had our picture made in front of it.  It will be neat to watch that movie over here knowing that we've been in that house!  Wollaton Park is also known as Deer Park.  I guess I thought they wouldn't be out and about because of the cold and snow, but boy was I wrong!!  Of course, I went out to where they were to take pictures.  My batteries actually died and I had to use my little camera for the stuff inside :)  The deer were so pretty and the one big one was such a poser!  He would stop eating and look up and pose for whatever person was taking pictures of him at the time,  There were quite a few deer out eating, but there were so many behind the conservation fence!  The gate is open for them to be able to go in and out, but people aren't allowed inside the fence.  I loved looking at the deer out in the snow with Wollaton Hall in the distance on the hill.  Such a pretty sight.  The park is HUGE!  There were families there sledding down the hills and everyone had their dogs out for walks.  We actually went because they were having a Valentine Market, but it wasn't what I expected, it was much smaller.  There were some vendors set up outside and some inside.  We did buy a cake, some candy, and a Spanish baking dish.  Those were our Valentine's gifts.  Inside, they had the candy set up and Mark zeroed right in on that!  I was looking at some hand made buttons (for my future daughter-in-law) :) and apparently Mark bought his candy AND ate it.  He didn't even wait to get outside, much less home!  We went back outside and walked around one of the walking trails (which was covered in snow and ice, so it wasn't the easiest to walk on).  There is a private golf course at the back of the house and we saw more deer in the distance.  There were two groups of them and one group went running across the field to the others.  It was such a beautiful sight!!  We will definitely be going back in the spring to see it all green and in bloom! 

We went to a new restaurant that night for dinner called The Roundhouse.  It was very, very good!  The exterior is very deceiving though.  It is much smaller inside than what it looks like.  We had such a great weekend and didn't even leave the city to see new things and experience something great.

Cheers Y'all!!

outside St Mary's church

Market Square

castle grounds

My heart! :)

Wollaton Hall

Wollaton Hall

our Spanish baking dish

the poser :)

the herd we saw while on the walking trail

the walking trail

The Roundhouse & our candlelight at the table

Christmas in Scotland

Our early Christmas at home was a whirlwind, so it was nice to have a relaxing Christmas in Edinburgh, Scotland since we had to be back over here during actual Christmas.  Getting there was an adventure though.  We had to be at the bus stop at 6:00 am on Christmas Eve (and that's not easy for me at all!)  We walked down, and when the bus arrived, the bus driver was trying to kick a passenger off.  The passenger refused, so he called the police!  While he was making the call, the passenger snuck out the back door!  Of course, he had made a mess in the back of the bus, so the driver had to leave to clean it up.  We were afraid we were going to have to try to find a taxi to take us to the airport, but he finally came back.  There is a small airport here that actually goes a lot of places (I'm sure we'll be using them quite a bit), but their security was tougher than any other we've gone through.  The lady in front us got into it with the security girl and had to leave.  They double scanned my camera and lens and went through our bags of liquids.  The flight itself though was uneventful, thank goodness.  We got to the MacDonald Holyrood hotel and were actually able to go ahead and check in even though it was not even 10:00 am yet.  We dropped off our stuff and went for a walk in the city centre.  Edinburgh is a fascinating place!  The city centre is completely old style.  Even the new stuff that has come in has to have the same type architecture so they don't lose the look.  We walked down Royal Mile and found several interesting shops.  LOTS of cashmere!  I got mine and Jennifer's ornaments and found several things that we either got or will get on our next trip for next year's Christmas presents.  We made it up to Edinburgh castle.  We stopped on our way back and ate lunch at The Deacon's House Cafe.  I wasn't crazy about the food (I should've known better because I'm not much of a sandwich person), but the story behind the place made it worthwhile.  There was a mural painted around the entire cafe depicting Deacon Brodie's life as an upright citizen by day and a thief by night.  He was found out and ran.  He was caught in Amsterdam and brought back to be hung.  Ironically, he had designed and built the gallows that were used to hang him.  The cafe is located in what was his work room and the vaulted ceiling in the kitchen, which we could see, date back to 1420.  There was a man eating in there that Mark said reminded him of my dad.  I started watching him and HE DID!  He resembled him some, but his mannerisms and things were so much like my dad!  The biggest likeness was when he put on his glasses and pulled out his newspaper :)  After we ate, we went back to the hotel to take a nap.  We actually slept through the afternoon snack of mulled wine minced pies.  I was so disappointed because I've never had either and really wanted to try them.  But they let us have some when we came downstairs to check about dinner.  The Christmas Eve meal was delicious!  I had fish and Mark had chicken.  It was no where near as plain as it sounds!!  They showed movies after that and we watched Christmas Vacation.  There's nothing like sitting in Scotland watching a movie where they sing the Star Spangled Banner and say the Pledge of Allegiance for a blessing.  We left before the 2nd movie so we could get ready for church.  We went to Canongate Kirk Church.  There was a royal wedding held there earlier in the year (Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall).  It was a very traditional service with scripture reading and hymns.  The hyms were mostly the same except the music to them was different.  Silent Night (can't remember what the title was for them) was the same tune but different words.  It turned midnight and Christmas Day as we sang this.  Very special feeling to be singing of the birth of Jesus as the day of his birth dawns.  Thank goodness O Come All Ye Faithful was the same in word and tune.  We slept late on Christmas morning and almost missed breakfast.  (Do you see the theme of the weekend?  Eat and sleep) :)  We came back from breakfast and got ready so we could go back for lunch.  I had the roast turkey and Mark had the ribeye.  We also had Christmas pudding for desert.  We finally decided that we needed to walk around some before supper because we were so full, so we went around Prince's St and back down the Royal Mile.  Edinburgh is beautiful at night!  I wish I could take good night pictures because they certainly don't do justice to the sights!  Supper was a buffet and I finally tried lamb.  I thought it was pretty good and so was the roast beef.  We went down to the bar to read and just kind of relax and met a very interesting Scots man.  He talked and talked and talked to us.  We finally went back up to the room when he went outside to smoke so that we could actually get some reading done :)  Monday was Boxing Day and we didn't have anything until the panto at 2:00.  So, I booked a mini facial at the spa.  I've never had anything like that before but you can rest assured it won't be the last time!  Mark went back down to the lobby to read while I was getting ready, but in a few minutes he came back in the room.  That same guy was back in the bar and Mark wasn't taking in chances on being spotted! lol  We went to the Cinderella panto (pantomime show).  We had no idea what it was or what to expect.  Apparently most or all of the lead roles are played by men (no matter the character) and that was the case in this, except Cinderella was played by a girl.  Her mother and the step sisters (one was a midget) were played by men.  It's actually like a spoof on the story with lots of jokes, some local, like about the soccer team, the trolley system, shopping, etc, and modern songs.  It was hilarious and very entertaining.  I am sure we will go to another one while we are over here.  They are a Christmas thing and it appears that it's local talent.  At dinner that night we were assigned tables and met some of the people that were there.  A nice couple from York sat beside Mark and gave us their number in case we would like to visit with them when we go see York.  They also gave us a list of things to see there.  There was supposed to be a dance after dinner, but that never really materialized :)  Tuesday morning was breakfast and check out.  They held our luggage and booked us a taxi for late that afternoon to the airport, then we were off to tour the castle.  It is an amazing place.  The history is hard to wrap your mind around.  In the building that houses the crown jewels, they have the complete line of royalty for Scotland and the 1st one was in 840 AD!!  Mark and I are both just in awe of the fact that these little old southerns have seen the crown jewels of England and of Scotland.  I loved St Margaret's Chapel.  It is still used for christenings, baptisms, and weddings.  The tour guide said the good thing about using for a wedding was you could only have 25 people there.  When I went inside, I couldn't see how you could get 25 people in there.  There were several things inside the castle that were closed since it was a holiday, but that made it a little easier.  You could easily spend hours and hours in there.  We were in there for a little over 2 hours.  As we walked away from the castle, there was a guy on the street dressed up as William Wallace.  We had to get our pictures made with him!  Mark loves that movie and quote: "you can take our lives but you can't take our freedom" in his best attempt at a Scotish accent :)  He also gave me a post card (a picture of his arse with a rose tattoo) before we left.  He was very funny and very interactive with the people around him.  We ate lunch at a pub called the Filling Station and yes, it was decorated like a gas station inside :)  It's chain but only in Scotland.  We went back to the hotel and since we had a little time before the cab came, I went back to the Canongate church to take pictures.  There is a cemetary that is on 3 sides of the church.  I took some pictures there and walked around looking at how old the headstones were.  We will definitely be going back to Edinburgh for a more guided type of sightseeing and going to other areas of the country!

Cheers Y'all!

I love London

London was amazing!!  I don't even know where to begin.  We got there on Friday a little after noon.  After we checked in at The Cumberland next to the Marble Arch, we went walking around Hyde Park.  It's a lot like Central Park in that it is an oasis of nature and quiet in a bustling city.  We came to Serpentine Lake and some of my favorite pictures are from there.  There were swans and ducks all along the water's edge and they weren't afraid of people.  I was squatting down taking pictures and a duck plopped out of the water right beside me.  He didn't move away from me.  We had been there for a little while and were about to leave.  I stood up and contemplated trying to pet the duck.  I took a small, slow step with my right foot.  He took a small. slow step with his right foot.  I took a small. slow step with my left foot, and he did the same.  Mark was watching and laughing.  He said it was like the duck was mimicking me.  There were the fattest squirrels I have ever seen eating their acorns.  We walked on to the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain.  It was closed and there wasn't any water running (disadvantage of going in winter) but I bet it is really pretty in the summer when it's in full force.  We never made it to Kennsington Palace...maybe next time.  There was a Christmas Fun Fair in the park and we walked through it.  We didn't stop because there is a smaller one set up here in Nottingham that we knew we'd be going to. We had to go back and get ready for the play.  We had asked the concierge about the best way to get there and he said a taxi...5-10 min.  So we left about 15 min early thinking we were giving ourselves a little extra time.  We finally got a cab and the traffic was so bad that it took us 30 minutes to get there!  We saw Wicked and we were both blown away!!!  I am a believer in the statement that the real talent is on the stage!  I can't describe just how good it was.  We had eaten such a late lunch that we didn't eat supper until after the play.  Most places around the hotel were already closed.  We found a little restaurant called The Spaghetti House.  When I say little.....it honestly had 9 tables in it.  But the food was amazing!  And the service was great!  Saturday and Sunday were full on touristy sight-seeing days!  We had tickets for a bus tour.  I made Mark sit on the open air top so I could take pictures.  It was cold and windy while we were there, but not enough to keep me on the bottom :)  The sights were amazing!  It's like a lot of other places, the pictures don't do them justice. We went into Trafalgar Square.  They had a monument to countdown till the Olympics, foutains and of course statues :) We walked down Downing Street where all the government buildings are.  We saw where the Prime Minister lives and monuments to veterans.  The WW1/WW2 monument was still decorated with the poseys from Rememberance Day on Nov 11.  We saw guards on horseback that you could go get your picture made with.  We did a walking tour of Jack the Ripper.  It was one of the best parts of the trip.  The guide did a great job and it was so neat to know we were walking in his footsteps and that a lot of things are still the same as they were back then.  We were walking through the east end of London (Dickens's London) and they still have gas powered lamps, cobblestone streets, small alleyways, the pub where "Jack" and the ladies of the night frequented.  Mark had to get a book in the train station because he wanted to know more about it after that.  It was funny because the guide said the people that live in that area don't like to talk about it and you could hear people as we were walking by say "That's the Jack the Ripper tour."  On Sunday we went to Buckingham Palace.  What a spectacular place!  We were at the fountain and Mark asked on of the security officers about how to get somewhere and he asked where we were from.  We said Alabama and he said he hadn't been there yet.  He's been to 35 states...more than us.  I told him that I had missed our big game to be there and he said that queen was there and waiting on us :)  He was really nice and funny.  He's the one that took the picture of us in front of the palace.  We then went to the Tower of London.  That was neat too.  We had a tour from a Yeoman Guard that told of the bloody history of the tower.  He talked about the public executions and where people were held.  He talked about one that escaped with the help of his wife.  He showed us where the private executions were held.  He has the neatest job in the world!  The Yeoman Guards have to have served 22 years in the military and they live on site with their families.  The church on the grounds is where they go to church (it also has the crypts where the executed are buried).  They have their own pub.  It was just incredible.  Then we toured the crown jewels.  Now THAT'S some jewelry!  The crowns, the sword, the coronation robes, the gold....it leaves you speechless.  Some stuff is still used.  We went through White Castle Palace, which is where Henry VIII (and many other kings) lived.  It was used as a residence for 500 years.  It's now a museum and has armor from the 1600's on.  There is also a little chapel in there.  After the Tower, we took a riverboat cruise on the River Thames and got off at Big Ben.  We walked around there for a few minutes and then took the tube back to our hotel to get our bags and head to the train station.  We managed to take as many forms of transportation as possible....train, taxi, bus, boat, and subway.  St Pancras train station is pretty and is a sight seeing stop itself.  There are several shops and places to eat in there.  We ate supper there then took the train home.  We were exhausted!!  But we also left there with a list of things to do next time.  London is definitely a place we will go back to many times while we are here!

Cheers Y'all!